i wonder how many people have actually
used a semi auto hunting rifle extensively
and have had a slew of problems, and how
many just read it somewhere and pass it on
down the line ?
Bought a brand new 742 .30/06 in 1984 when I turned 18. Best accuracy was about 2.5" at 100yds. with 150g Silvertips. For 6 years it was a deer slayer. Year seven the gas port plugged and it started stove piping the ejected cases. This cost me a deer. I missed the first shot and he stopped running and just stood there. Me having to work the action to clear the jam ran him off. Got that fixed and all was good rest of season. Year eight the extractor lost is springiness and the rifle would not always chamber completely. More often than not the cartridge head was sitting on the extractor and not the bolt face. You had to pull the plastic bolt cover back to see if it had chambered completely. It would go far enough into battery that the firing pin would fall when you pulled the trigger making a loud click as the pin failed to contact the primer. This also cost me a deer. Year nine, well I don't know. I got it fixed and swapped it for a 336 in .35 Rem. I also bought my first bolt gun that same year. I did have a Ruger .44 carbine for a while later but sold it too. Now the only semi-auto's I own are AR's.
